Chapter 107: Refitting the Ship
Monchhichi stood by, listening quietly, when a sudden idea struck. "Since it’s dangerous, why not do what we did during the storm crisis? Lure a bunch of Survivor teams over to help share the risk."
As soon as he said this, Raphael and Toti both shot him a look.
Monchhichi stuck out his tongue and said softly: "That was in the past. You guys don’t mind, right?"
Raphael sighed and gave Kevin a sideways glance. "We’re all your crew now. Naturally, we have to look out for you. I agree with Monchhichi."
Toti sat to the side, took a sip of beer, and muttered: "Kevin, you’re full of bad ideas. But I like that. Don’t worry about me. Go ahead and do what you need to."
Kevin nodded. "Then let’s take all the ships chasing us — more than twenty of them — straight to the treasure spot."
Just as he finished speaking, Stephanie walked over quickly, looking worried.
She put a coin on the table and whispered: "This coin just reacted. Keston must be locking onto my location."
Keston is coming?
Kevin picked up the coin, a thin smile spreading across his face. "Perfect. Let him walk into whatever traps we set."
With that, Kevin spread out three maps and carefully compared them.
The Terror Sea was enormous. Based on the chart information Kevin had, only one B-Tier treasure map showed a location within the waters he already knew.
And it just so happened to be on the route Lilith had drawn for Kevin.
Kevin took out that B-Tier treasure map and gently placed it on the table. "We’ll go here. We’re still in the rest period, so there won’t be any Eldritch Entity attacks. The journey should be much smoother."
Kevin pulled out the [Witch’s Oath Coin (Heads)] and grinned. "There’s an unknown area marked on the map. Let those guys explore it for us."
He summoned a Falcon Form Mist Phantom.
It grabbed the [Witch’s Oath Coin (Heads)] in its beak, flew out of the cabin in an instant, and headed straight for the unknown area on the map.
Meanwhile, Kevin summoned another Serpent Form Mist Phantom.
The moment it appeared, it wrapped itself around Stephanie’s body.
"Kevin, please don’t. I haven’t betrayed you. Don’t kill me." Stephanie said in a panic, quickly trying to explain.
Kevin waved his hand. The Serpent Form Mist Phantom instantly turned into a mass of Blood Mist energy and slipped into Stephanie’s body.
"Relax. As long as you behave and don’t try anything tricky, you’ll live," Kevin warned.
Stephanie was trembling all over.
She knew this feeling well. She had been possessed by the Serpent Form Mist Phantom.
From now on, every move she made, even her thoughts and memories, would be under the watch of that Serpent Form Mist Phantom.
Thinking about this, Stephanie didn’t look scared. Instead, she blushed.
Kevin frowned at her reaction.
Then, the Serpent Form Mist Phantom sent him a series of rather inappropriate images.
In those memories, Stephanie was entangled with Kevin, naked.
They were having sex in different cabins with different postures.
Even Stephanie’s mouth and anus had served Kevin.
Kevin frowned as he looked at the images in front of him.
There were just too many of them. If he played them all, it would take at least a hundred hours.
Thinking about that, Kevin quickly disconnected from Serpent Form Mist Phantom. He stared at Stephanie, whose face was bright red. "You can go now. Monchhichi and Raphael will tell you what to do next."
Stephanie let out an "Oh," turned around, and jogged back to her room.
Kevin watched her awkward, fidgety figure as she walked away and felt a wave of disgust.
What the hell was wrong with this woman?
How could she have memories like this?
No, wait—Serpent Form Mist Phantom could extract not just memories, but dreams too.
"Holy shit — this woman goes to bed with me in her dreams every single night. Different positions, different body parts, and without a condom.
This is so damn disgusting!
Kevin barely held back his disgust and directly ordered Monchhichi and Raphael to keep an eye on Stephanie’s every move.
As for the memories and information sent back by Serpent Form Mist Phantom, Kevin decided to check them later.
Otherwise, having to sync all the dirty stuff in Stephanie’s head in real time every day would drive Kevin crazy.
Next, Kevin asked the girls to hand over all the "Ship Modification Cards" they had collected.
This was the first time Kevin had asked them for supplies, and the girls eagerly pulled out all their cards and handed them to Kevin.
Each [Ship Modification Card] could modify a different part of the ship, and you could only find out what part by tearing the card open.
Kevin casually tore open the first one.
[Propeller Thruster (1/5): Collect five to upgrade the ship’s propulsion system. Prerequisite tech: Paddle Wheel Thruster.]
Nice!
Kevin’s current "Daddy" Cannon still relied on the paddle wheels on both sides of the hull to move forward.
Because the waves were huge, the paddle wheels broke easily and gave unstable power due to water resistance.
But with a propeller, the ship’s ability to handle waves and the stability of its thrust would improve a lot.
Thinking of this, Kevin grinned and tore open the second card.
[Coal-Fired High-Pressure Water Tube Boiler (1/5): Collect five to upgrade the ship’s steam engine fuel system. Prerequisite tech: Charcoal Boile]
Kevin looked at the card and felt a spark of excitement.
No doubt, coal had way more energy and heat efficiency than charcoal.
Burning coal would save fuel storage space and greatly increase the ship’s range.
If there was any downside to the [Coal-Fired High-Pressure Water Tube Boiler], it was that finding a stable coal supply on the terrifying sea was hard.
But that wasn’t a problem for Kevin — in fact, he didn’t even need to burn coal to make the boiler run on its own.
That was the power of Kevin’s [Mechanical Sovereign] ability: it could drive anything without any fuel.
With that thought, Kevin put the card away and tore open the third one.
Then the fourth... the fifth... all the way to the sixty-seventh.
In the end, Kevin collected nine new types of upgrade tech.
Here’s the English translation, using simple, natural language that fits Western readers:
They were: [Steam Refrigerator], [Seawater Desalinator], [Ship Hull External Armor], [Warship Rifled Cannon], [Explosive Shell], [Ship Rudder Hydraulic Power Assist], [Propeller Thruster], [Coal-Fired High-Pressure Water Tube Boiler], and [c].
Kevin looked at these ready-to-use [Ship Modification Cards] and nodded with satisfaction.
Besides the [Propeller Thruster] and [Coal-Fired High-Pressure Water Tube Boiler] — which improved the ship’s power — the [Ballast Water Tank System] could adjust the ship’s center of gravity, making it much more stable and preventing it from tipping over.
The [Steam Refrigerator] and [Seawater Desalinator] would let him store lots of fresh water and meat. Kevin even planned to set up a separate cabin as a freezer, so the supplies on the "Daddy" Cannon could be more varied from now on.
As for the old-school warship weapons like the [Hull External Armor], [Warship Rifled Cannon], and "Explosive Shell," Kevin was also pretty interested.
At the very least, the [Warship Rifled Cannon] had a range of eight to ten kilometers. Sure, its accuracy wasn’t great, but Kevin could keep producing Artillery Shells nonstop.
If he ever ran into another Survivor’s fleet or a giant sea monster, Kevin could just line up hundreds of rifled cannons and fire them all at once — the enemy wouldn’t be able to handle it.
You could say these [Ship Modification Cards] provided a full upgrade for the ship.
Any Survivor fleet that got these Hull Modification Cards would see a big improvement in both sailing safety and combat ability.
But for Kevin, the benefits went even further.
Kevin checked the materials and directly applied all nine upgrade technologies to the "Daddy" Cannon.
To do this, he used his "Mechanical Sovereign" Talent to adjust dozens of cubic meters of cabin space before finishing all nine upgrades.
Once all nine technologies were fully installed on the "Daddy" Cannon, Kevin could clearly feel that the ship was moving faster.
He immediately activated his [Mechanical Sovereign] Talent, scanned the mechanical blueprints, and learned their technical theories.
Soon, Kevin’s Mechanical Kingdom Research Center used these theories to open up a new tech tree.
[Coal-Fired High-Pressure Water Tube Boiler] → [Diesel Engine]
[Warship Rifled Cannon] → [Warship Close-In Defense Gun]
[RPG Launcher] → [Vertical Rocket Launcher]
[Propeller Thruster] → [Small Landing Craft]
[Walkie-Talkie] → [Radio Communication Station]
[Helicopter Radar] → [Ground-Based Navigation System]
[Recon Drone] → [Mini Suicide Drone]
Looking at all these new mechanical equipment, Kevin was super excited.
Once he developed these, the "Daddy" Cannon would become a real warship, able to hold its own in sea battles.
By then, whether it was close-in defense guns, cannons, recon drones, suicide drones, or long-range rockets, everything could be launched from the "Daddy" Cannon.
If they ran into enemies at sea, the "Daddy" Cannon itself would be the strongest and most reliable weapon in Kevin’s fleet.
"When that happens, I’ll have Amelia carve some Runes on the ’Daddy’ Cannon," Kevin said with a grin, imagining the future. "Make it a mobile warship that’s both physical and magical — that would be totally awesome."
Just then, the girls noticed the changes on the "Daddy" Cannon.
They saw that the ship, which originally had only four decks, now had an extra one. They all walked down the stairs.
A cold wind hit them, and Celula shivered. "Kevin, why is it so cold down here? And what’s that noise?"
....